A successful week for Irish music all-round! Firstly congratulations to Jape on winning the Choice Music Prize – many have already said it went to the nicest man in Ireland and of those on the final shortlist, he was certainly amongst the most deserving. Halfset made a really good album and R.S.A.G. certainly set tympanics trembling with Organic Sampler but in the end the award went to one whose music played truly massive role in 2008. Despite fear and suspicion on the night due to the presence of David Holmes and The Script, Richie Egan is now wealthier to the tune of ten thousand fruits and a smooth celebratory trophy declaring Ritual the most critically-acclaimed Irish album of 2008. Thank you Jape.
There’s an interview with Choice founder Jim Carroll over on Analog. It’s a decent read…have Phantom really been binning bands’ CDs? In this age of carbon neutrality I thought unwanted promos found a home in charity shops. It’s all a wicked lie!
Salulations are also in order for Falter Ego who won the DIT Battle of the Bands in Think Tank on Wednesday (by the by, how fantastic is the new Cylon ceiling in the Eustace Street club?! Totally makes up for the naff Diet-Cokesque mural and porn-star toilets…!) Falter Ego beat off competition from Bojangled, Flying Columns and The Harm to win the first heat. Myself and two judges from Drop-D were level-pegging at 3/4 time and prepared for a fight amongst Indies when the three metallers rocked on and settled the score with four great, catchy songs. Look forward to hearing from you lads but if I can make one teeeny suggestion – introducing online visitors to your music with “The Official…Myspace Page” is a bit naff. Just sayin….
Before I launch into the plethora of upcoming releases and shows, take a moment to consider Parhelia‘s words on the effects of illegal downloading on small bands.
The Dublin post-rockers released Shifting Sands in early February and yet to date there have been over 500 downloads from one filesharing site alone – more than the album’s total legitimate sales. That ain’t cool. Support your local music industry people – it’s the only way to survive without selling out.
The other gigging biggie is The Urges in Whelans, also tomorrow – biggie because it’s their last Irish date before they descend on the not-so-sleepy town of Austin, Texas for SXSW….did you know the city has a bat population of 1.5 million? Sounds like a kind of haven!
New video from supremely talented Gemma Hayes – she’s a special favourite for many. This is Home, second single from The Hollow of the Morning. It was shot on location in Californiain the same area where Gone With The Wind (“I’s a-scairt a cows!!”), one of my all-time movie faves was also filmed. Which is just kinda cool and interesting, a funny choice considering Casablas is a thousand miles from Tipperary. Lucky, lovely Gemma. The song’s great too…
I have never known any band who don’t mention the name of their single in the press release, which may be a ploy to mystify those of us with an OCD-curiosity disposition into following all the links to www.linesdrawingcircles.com. Now that’s what I call reaching an intelligent audience. Or not.
Thebes is released this Saturday 7 February in Crawdaddy with support from The Funeral Suits and Boy Prophet. Get ready for Lines Drawing Crowds….
Pichas from the first ‘real’ Saturday in January. Twas bloody freezing then too but we had fun
This image is so cool I made a new desktop! Kudos due to the artist, just swiped it from Richie’s MySpace but does anyone know its story? Not sure if it’s a genuine drawing or rendered in Photoshop…
Gwan and text ‘music 2123‘ to 57501 to buy Phil Lynnott for 99 measly squiddlin’ cent from downloadmusic.ie. I bought all my family Irish records for Christmas and Jape goes to my Dublin 8, 70s-rock Mammy (she still fancies the hole off Philo)…mustn’t give away who else got what!
Autoban‘s new single Sirens is doing very well – they’ve a tasty run of gigs starting with a Near FM slot tomorrow, Dorans on 9 December and The Academy 2 the next night before culminating in New Year’s Eve at Whelans. I believe they’ve a few female flasher fans so that’ll go down well…
Burgeonmaster Nialler9* posted on the Facebook campaign to get Jape‘s Phil Lynnot to the top spot on 25 December. The song, recently faved by Hot Press towers’ powers in the OxJam issue, is one of the sweetest tracks from Richie Egan’s recent Ritual album and depicts Philo looking over Dublin during a lunar eclipse. Lovely stuff and a wonderful tribute to the mainstay of Irish rock.
Join the campaign group on Facebook (if you must!) or even better, get to the savage Tripod gig on 18 December where Cap Pas Cap and The Vinny Club go head-to-head against the Crumlin header himself. That’ll put some egg in your nog.
Details of Phil Lynnot single TBC.
…Maybe you’ve already seen this. Tough, here it is again: vid and flyer for You Feel The Fire!, new single from astrofunkists Le Galaxie. Preparing to launch on 31 October in Crawdaddy, definitely Crawdaddy, LG will be joined by Deadbots and Antics DJs. Not a smudge of greasepaint or pumpkins in sight…
Darragh Anderson from Codes withstood my probing questions for Drop-D, all in aid of Guided By Ghosts, single #4 which launches tomorrow in the Button Factory with support from Orphan Code. Total codey overload. Codes, C O D E S, codes. -which is it? Read on…
Drop-D: How did you get into music in the first place? You’re actually a veteran of the music scene, having an earlier band Lost when still in your teens. Was that messed-up, the music biz being tough enough as an adult?
Daragh Anderson: I’ve been really into music as far back as I can remember, not that any of my family were particularly musical, I used to sing a lot around the house so my parents got me singing into a school choir and I just found it pretty natural. I think I only started playing and writing pretty late on, around age 16 I got my first guitar and it went from there. Paul (Drums) and I were in a few other musical incarnations, one of them being Lost. I think playing music was more of a hobby for us back then, we were all pretty young and spent a lot of time trying to find our own voice while learning a lot about the way the industry operated rather than being massively involved in any kind of scene. It is incredibly rewarding having learned a lot early on.
Well, who saw that one coming? Boyband turned manband The Script hit the top spot of Irish and UK album charts yesterday. Their self-titled debut album stole the crown from golden oldies Abba whose greatest hits compilation was flying high in the wake of Mamma Mia! smashing the movie charts.
The Script’s latest single The Man Who Can’t Be Moved is also high in the singles chart at number three here and over the water. Their debut single We Cry is also still holding strong in the late thirties. It’s great news for the band but I really wish they’d pulled a double and knocked bloody Kid Rock right out of the running. Meh!
